Our CEO

A Letter From Our CEO

I grew up in New York, raised by a nurse and a businessman. In me, you see a part of each of them—a strong business woman, and a person deeply devoted to helping others. I have always felt a longing to give back and help others. While I was in high school, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Seeing the people of their city suffering, I felt I had to do something. I helped to organize a community service trip to Louisiana with some fellow classmates. Seeing the devastation in New Orleans firsthand was shocking to me. I couldn’t believe how unaware our country was of the suffering taking place on our own soil. I decided to rescind my acceptance to University, and spent a year after high school serving our country with the federal National Service program AmeriCorps NCCC—the domestic Peace Corps. During my time in AmeriCorps, I fed and clothed the hungry and homeless during the holidays at the Sacramento food bank; taught geometry in an inner-city Los Angeles high school; built homes for needy families with Habitat For Humanity in Louisiana; and helped the victims of Southern California’s wildfires to rebuild their lives.

After AmeriCorps, I went to UC Berkeley and studied at their Haas School of Business. Berkeley had always been my dream school—it had a reputation for being the most diverse and public service-oriented University in the world. Green and determined, upon graduation I headed off to San Francisco to work at one of the “Big Four”accounting firms. In my time there, I saw how commonplace it was for corporations to give gifts to their employees, clients, business partners and leads. Most of these gifts were just throwaways and ended up in a junk drawer. They were never meaningful or thoughtful, just cheesy novelty products with a corporate logo on it. Additionally, in my own gift giving efforts, I struggled to find products that had meaning and aligned with my personal values. While gift-giving is about so much more than transactional exchange, giving a quality, personalized gift was difficult and time consuming.

On my travels around the world, I discovered beautiful goods that were made by charities and cause-based enterprises. I wanted to help them to increase their reach and improve their impact, so I applied to the USC Marshall School of Business’ Social Entrepreneurship program. During my time in business school, I decided to create an e-commerce brand that serves companies and professionals with useful and meaningful gifting options, while also driving revenue to impactful social causes. At Gifts For Good, our goal is to simplify gift giving. Our team curates premium business gifts that are customized for each of our clients’ unique values, interests, industry and needs. We believe in what we offer. All of our gifts are high-quality goods that people will love to give and receive. Plus, when you purchase a gift on our site, you can support over 40 charities and social enterprises in 19 states and 65 countries who are helping to tackle our world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges. Together with our customers, we’re transforming everyday purchases into a force for good around the world.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

A Letter From Our CEO

I grew up in New York, raised by a nurse and a businessman. In me, you see a part of each of them—a strong business woman, and a person deeply devoted to helping others. I have always felt a longing to give back and help others. While I was in high school, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Seeing the people of their city suffering, I felt I had to do something. I helped to organize a community service trip to Louisiana with some fellow classmates. Seeing the devastation in New Orleans firsthand was shocking to me. I couldn’t believe how unaware our country was of the suffering taking place on our own soil. I decided to rescind my acceptance to University, and spent a year after high school serving our country with the federal National Service program AmeriCorps NCCC—the domestic Peace Corps. During my time in AmeriCorps, I fed and clothed the hungry and homeless during the holidays at the Sacramento food bank; taught geometry in an inner-city Los Angeles high school; built homes for needy families with Habitat For Humanity in Louisiana; and helped the victims of Southern California’s wildfires to rebuild their lives.

After AmeriCorps, I went to UC Berkeley and studied at their Haas School of Business. Berkeley had always been my dream school—it had a reputation for being the most diverse and public service-oriented University in the world. Green and determined, upon graduation I headed off to San Francisco to work at one of the “Big Four”accounting firms. In my time there, I saw how commonplace it was for corporations to give gifts to their employees, clients, business partners and leads. Most of these gifts were just throwaways and ended up in a junk drawer. They were never meaningful or thoughtful, just cheesy novelty products with a corporate logo on it. Additionally, in my own gift giving efforts, I struggled to find products that had meaning and aligned with my personal values. While gift-giving is about so much more than transactional exchange, giving a quality, personalized gift was difficult and time consuming.

On my travels around the world, I discovered beautiful goods that were made by charities and cause-based enterprises. I wanted to help them to increase their reach and improve their impact, so I applied to the USC Marshall School of Business’ Social Entrepreneurship program. During my time in business school, I decided to create an e-commerce brand that serves companies and professionals with useful and meaningful gifting options, while also driving revenue to impactful social causes. At Gifts For Good, our goal is to simplify gift giving. Our team curates premium business gifts that are customized for each of our clients’ unique values, interests, industry and needs. We believe in what we offer. All of our gifts are high-quality goods that people will love to give and receive. Plus, when you purchase a gift on our site, you can support over 40 charities and social enterprises in 19 states and 65 countries who are helping to tackle our world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges. Together with our customers, we’re transforming everyday purchases into a force for good around the world.

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Laura is the co-founder and CEO of Gifts for Good— an e-commerce site that curates and customizes premium gifts for companies and professionals that support charitable causes in 19 states and 65 countries around the globe. Making thoughtfulness and philanthropy easier for all.

Prior to starting Gifts for Good, Laura worked as the Creative Director of Cultural Outreach where she helped mortgage and real estate professionals better reach and serve the next generation of multicultural and Millennial homebuyers through cutting-edge training, marketing, and diversity recruitment solutions. She also served as an Audit Senior Associate at Deloitte, where she helped to identify and mitigate potential risks within client accounting, internal control and operating procedures for leading financial institutions, Charles Schwab and Bank of the West.

Laura dedicated two years of her life to national community service work with AmeriCorps NCCC— the Domestic Peace Corps. She is the recipient of the Bronze Congressional Service Award—the highest award given by any U.S. legislative body—which recognizes “initiative, service and achievement in young people.

Laura studied Business Administration at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and later earned her Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business.

Though originally hailing from New York, she has been fortunate enough to live in a diverse slew of countries, including China, Spain, and South Africa, and to have traveled through 22 countries and 49 states. In her free time, Laura enjoys cycling, photography, volunteering, hiking, camping, and road trips with her husband Ian and her dog Ghost.

Jerry Eisenberg

CFO & Co-Founder

Jerry is privileged to have the ability to reinvent himself on numerous occasions, and has been a real estate investor, world traveler, serial entrepreneur, and above all a life-long learner. From the Warner Center Gun Club to The Sweet Spot Coffee kiosks to Real Estate Development, starting new businesses has been a focal point in Jerry’s career path. Pivoting to the social enterprise arena as a further career chapter, Gifts for Good was created to help charities and social causes to sustain themselves and combine business with doing well.

In 1995, Jerry founded Eisenberg Investments, a real estate investment company dedicated to rehabilitating and providing urban in-fill multi-family housing at affordable market rents in the Los Angeles area. Comprising hundred of units, Eisenberg Investments is known for high quality renovations and supportive living communities. Under his leadership, the company has also built hundreds of entry-level market based housing for sale throughout Southern California, with Wilshire Homes and Winnetka Village among the many successful projects.

Having climbed Kilimanjaro, trekked the Himalayas, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, hiked Machu Picchu, Easter Island, Bali, and Patagonia, tracked gorillas in Uganda and tigers in India and dog sled across the Arctic, Jerry has made being a citizen of the world a significant life goal Further, appreciating the benefit of higher education, he holds a degree in Political Science and Economics from UCLA, a JD from Loyola Law School, an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MA in Political Science from USC, MA in History from CSUN, and is currently finishing his Master’s of Science in Social Enterprises from USC. He resides in Bel Air , Malibu, Cabo San Lucas, MX and Siena IT, with his wife Jacqueline, their daughter Jade, and stepson Maxwell.

Jenise Steverding

Chief Impact Officer

Jenise is a social entrepreneur focused on developing new business models around impact. Over the last decade she has worked around issues of basic needs and human rights. While working in humanitarian relief and development, she oversaw fundraising, marketing, and program partnerships. She was deployed to Haiti in 2010 after the earthquake overseeing product distribution. She then moved to one of the most successful social enterprises, TOMS, where she built out the Giving account team and NGO partner strategy to scale the shoe-giving program from 1M to 50M pairs of shoes distributed in 50 countries with a focus on program integration.

In 2014, Jenise joined the Games Organizing Committee of the Special Olympics World Games – the largest sporting event in the world in 2015. She implemented corporate sponsorships and cause-marketing programs with Toyota, Google, Westfield, among other sponsors. Prior to joining Gifts for Good, she was the Vice President of Impact Strategy for Pledgeling Technologies, helping brands add social impact using technology.

At Gifts for Good, she leads the impact and brand partnerships team, ensuring all curated, premium products meet Gifts for Good impact and product standards and provide meaning to corporate clients. Jenise studied business and sociology at Westmont College and later earned her Master’s in Public Management at SDA Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

She is a California native, having grown up in Orange County, and later lived in Santa Barbara and San Francisco. Prior to relocating to Los Angeles, Jenise lived in Milan, Italy and Johannesburg, South Africa. She’s a global traveler having visited 36 countries (and counting) and worked with numerous nonprofits around the globe. She’s passionate about using business for good and playing with her Silky Terrier, Max.